Donovan calls for Bulls to defend more physically at rim originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Billy Donovan has never shied from calling out a lack of physicality in his Chicago Bulls players when he sees it.
He’s seeing it right now.
“We gotta put our body in plays,” the Bulls’ head coach said ahead of Thursday’s 126-109 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, their 10th defeat in 13 games. “At times, we have not done a good enough job of physically throwing our body in there. Vertical at the rim. Take a charge. Do something physically (to offer) some resistance.”
The line of questioning that spawned this answer came one day after Jimmy Butler, Erik Spoelstra and Udonis Haslem got in a heated in-game exchange during the Heat’s Wednesday night loss to the Warriors. Donovan said the Bulls have had “confrontation” in tough times this season, but it’s remained mostly behind closed doors. And it’s mostly been confined to conversations around, say, poor ball movement…